Trans Mountain Resumes Work on Pipeline in British Columbia

The Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project on Tuesday said it had been allowed to resume work in a wetland area near Abbotsford, British Columbia, after correcting issues raised by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER).

Earlier this month the CER ordered a halt on an 800-meter stretch after inspectors found several environmental and safety-related non-compliances.

“Trans Mountain has received a notice to resume work from the Canada Energy Regulator… Trans Mountain corrected all non-compliances in the region and is conducting safety inspections of all active sites to prevent any re-occurrence,” it said in an emailed statement.

The stop work order was the latest in a string of delays for the 590,000 barrel-per-day expansion project, which will nearly triple the flow of crude from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific Coast once completed.

Trans Mountain has said the expanded pipeline will start shipping crude late in the first quarter of 2024.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government bought the pipeline in 2018 to ensure the expansion went ahead. The project is expected to cost C$30.9 billion ($22.54 billion), more than four times the original estimate.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Nia Williams in British Columbia; editing by Barbara Lewis)